Monday, November 4, 2013

Book Review: Norwegian Wood

The
story is narrated by Toru Watanabe, as he looks back on his days as a college
student living in Tokyo. He remembers how he has been drawn to two different
women -- the emotionally troubled Naoko, and the outgoing Midori.

The
first thing that catches my attention is Murakami’s writing style in this
particular book. The voice is very informal and often times humorous. I’m not
sure whether this is just in the translation or the book is really written this
way in the original Japanese text. But one thing is for sure: it is highly
entertaining because it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Aside
from that, the storytelling is also very direct -- a total opposite of the
author’s style in his other books. But what makes the storytelling interesting --
or disengaging, depending on how you look at it -- is its tendency to dwell on
random plot elements, which juxtaposes the direct storytelling. This tendency
is good because the exploitation of random plot elements makes the foundation
of Murakami’s story even more solid. The readers are being opened to random
stories from the characters’ past. But what makes this tendency bad is the fact
that it may seem to appear that the story has no clear direction; that it is
just a bunch of random scenes and sequences stitched together.

This
is actually true; Norwegian Wood has no clear direction. But it doesn’t mean
that the random stories contained in it serve no purpose. In fact, these
stories are the juice of the book. Having no apparent goal, like ‘I have to
save the princess,’ or ‘I need to accomplish this or that,’ the force that
drives the story is the random sequencing. This book is more of ‘It’s the
journey, not the destination,’ since there really is no clear destination.

But
I admit that the randomness tend to be ineffective sometimes, especially when
it comes to particular details. Murakami tends to over-describe a scene. I
mean, I don’t care about the little girl buying hotdogs at the hotdog stand at
the corner of the park. Just tell me the story, no matter how random that story
might be. A random story is much more entertaining than a random detail.

As
for the characters, I find them to be well made, even though they are based on
stereotypes. Toru Watanabe is your usual aloof guy, but the reader will realize
that there’s something more to him further in the book. Midori Kobayashi is
your usual lively chic, but she possesses a strangely magical charisma that
will get the reader thirsting for more of her. Naoko is the least I liked in
the main characters. She has a boring personality. But this is nothing
technical; it is just an opinion. The supporting cast also has interesting
characterization. Reiko, Nagasawa, Hatsumi, and ‘Storm Trooper’ have distinct
personalities.

Overall,
Norwegian Wood is a very entertaining read. Its entertainment value is not in
the story’s goal, but in the seemingly random exposition and details that make
the story. What make these details even more entertaining are the effective use
of dialogue and the incorporation of humour. I could even cite a thousand
golden quotes by Midori alone.

No
matter how weird it sounds, Norwegian Wood is actually my favourite Murakami
book, even though it is not highly praised by others because of its seemingly
random yet direct storytelling. The ending, even though it seems anticlimactic,
is actually very subtle and appropriate. It is just too bad that it isn’t
communicated more directly to be easily deciphered. But hey, we’re talking
about Haruki Murakami here, so those kinds of endings are to be expected.

About The Author

You can call me Arvin Saints, but that is not my real name. I use that name in all my legitimate social media accounts. It’s not that I don’t want to directly associate myself to the cyber world. The name is simply an inside joke among my compatriots.